Chapter 12 · NCERT Class 5 Maths Mela

Racing Seconds

Tick, tick, tick! In a race, every second counts. Time is measured in seconds, minutes and hours, and a clock shows them all at once. Learn to read the clock and to work out how long things take. Tap each idea to begin.

⏱ 3 topics⏱ ~20 min📝 10-question quiz

Play with it

Six ideas about time

Time has its own units and its own clock. Tap each word to see what it means, with an everyday example.

Explore · Timetap a word

Learn

The three big ideas

A second is very short — about one tick, or how long it takes to say "one elephant".
60 seconds = 1 minute, and 60 minutes = 1 hour.
24 hours = 1 day. To change minutes to seconds, multiply by 60; to change hours to minutes, multiply by 60.

Worked example. How many seconds are there in 3 minutes?

Each minute has 60 seconds, so 3 × 60 = 180 seconds.

The short hand shows the hour; the long hand shows the minutes; the thin second hand sweeps around fastest.
The minute hand goes all the way round (60 minutes) in 1 hour; the second hand goes all the way round (60 seconds) in 1 minute.
We use a.m. for morning (before noon) and p.m. for afternoon and evening (after noon).

Common mix-up: don't swap the hands. The short hand is the hour; the long hand is the minutes. 3:45 means the short hand is near 3–4 and the long hand points to 9.

A duration is how long something lasts — from its start time to its end time.
If the times are in the same hour, just subtract the minutes: 4:35 − 4:10 = 25 minutes.
To compare times like a race, change everything to the same unit (seconds) first, then the smaller number is faster.

Where you'll meet it

Time in everyday life

Train & bus timetables

A timetable shows when a train leaves and when it arrives. Subtracting the two times tells you how long the journey takes — useful for planning a trip to your grandparents' village.

Timing a race or a recipe

Sports day races are measured in seconds. Cooking idli or boiling an egg needs minutes. Knowing the units helps you measure just the right amount of time.

Planning your day

School starts at 8 a.m., lunch at 12:30 p.m., bedtime at 9 p.m. Reading the clock and using a.m./p.m. keeps your whole day on track.

Check yourself

Practice quiz

A friendly set of questions about seconds, minutes, hours, clocks and durations — to check that you can tell the time and work out how long things take.

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